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Tea Party backers are angry and loud, but not ill-informed

Brian Beckley made it clear in his column June 23 that he doesn’t like people labeling him or trying to fit him into one of their little boxes, namely the liberal box. He wrote, “I hate it when people accuse me of things that I am not.”

Why then does he feel so free to label others harshly, as he did the Tea Party supporters. He wrote, “Tea Partiers are a bunch of angry, ill-informed loudmouths...whose total ignorance of government, history and the Constitution makes them impossible to take seriously.”

Mr. Beckley was partially right. It is true that the Tea Partiers are angry and a few of them may be loud, but they are not ill-informed and they are not ignorant of government, history and the Constitution. In fact, it is their knowledge of these that enables them to recognize that our republic and our freedoms are slipping away and that we must take action if we want to preserve liberty for our children and grandchildren.

Mr. Beckley further criticized the Tea Party movement by saying that Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck “got ahold” of it. Sorry, but that is not an accurate assessment. Neither of them has gotten ahold of the movement.

Palin is admired by many for taking a firm stand even in the face of ridicule from the left. Not many of us are as tough as she is. She might be invited to speak at Tea Party events, but she has not “got ahold” of the movement.

Beck is greatly appreciated by freedom-loving Americans because he and his staff search out facts and connections that the major news media won’t cover and they do it with meticulous attention to accuracy. Average Americans don’t have a research team to do their investigating for them, so they use Beck’s program as an important source of information. Mr. Beckley’s charge that Glenn Beck doesn’t care about principles is certainly not true. Anyone who listens to Beck knows that principles and values are frequent themes in his programs. He is organizing a rally to be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28. Its theme is “Restoring Honor.” There will be a big turnout, but it will probably get very little coverage by the mainstream media.

My last point is this: please take this election year seriously. It could determine what kind of nation our children’s children inherit. Do some in-depth research on the “progressive” agenda and see if you really want that kind of change for America.

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